a rough night

A little after midnight I woke up to my crying girl yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!" I thought she was having one of her night terrors, which don't happen very often anymore, but that's kind of what they sound like. I ran in, turned the light on, and picked her up. I went to wipe her nose/mouth, which looked very snotty, and realized it wasn't snot, but she had gotten sick all over herself (and therefore it was all over me, since I was holding her....and all over her bed, too). She was burning up and wouldn't stop crying, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy," over and over. We gave her a lukewarm bath to get her clean and try and bring the fever down and gave her tylenol. She screamed "Mommy" the whole time. It was heartbreaking.

Eventually we got her dressed and everything cleaned up, but she wouldn't calm down. I tried to get her to drink some water, but she wouldn't. I read her some books, which got her to stop crying, and she started falling asleep in my arms. I turned off the light and got ready to put her in bed and as I stood up with her, she got sick again, all over herself and me. The crying and "Mommy, Mommy," started all over again. Thankfully it hadn't gotten in the bed that time. We got the pack and play set up in our room, cleaned her up, and finally put her to bed in there next to us, so I'd be able to jump up and get her right away if she got sick again. Which she did....about an hour and a half later.

It was a LONG night with lots of tears, lots of clothes changes, lots of trying to get her to drink (which she wouldn't), lots of trying to calm her down, lots of scrubbing really nasty laundry at 3 AM and lots of worrying. I hardly slept all night.

She's better today, but still not really herself. She alternates between being her happy, normal self, and being fussy and irritable. She still has a bit of a fever and is sleeping more than normal (who blames her--she was up a long time last night!) and won't really eat or drink much--a couple of saltines and a little bit of water and milk. I'm concerned about the drinking part. She only wants her "wilk," which I knew wouldn't be good for her stomach. I talked to the nurse at the peditrician's office and she said if she'll only drink milk then to water it down (yuck!). I also just went and got some pedialyte--we'll see if she drinks it. She's not big on juice, so who knows. I'll try it when she wakes up.

One of the many times I came back to bed exhausted last night my husband said, "You're doing a good job and being a good mom." I started crying and said, "But I can't help her!" It's so hard to see your little one hurting and not be able to fix it. Then I told him thank you for all of his help cleaning up. He said, "Yeah, I'm just here..... Here to clean up the puke!" What a guy!

Let's hope tonight is better.....for all of us!

random facts about my random girl

*Tonight after seeing Ruby on "Max and Ruby" do ballet, she decided to start dancing on her toes. I wish I had caught it on video: she puts her arms up like she's trying to be a ballerina (but they're in front of her chest instead of up in the air) and she walks around in circles on her tip toes.

*She ate about four handfuls of sand at various times this weekend. Every time she does it the sandbox gets closed up and she's not allowed to play in it, which she hates, but you'd think that would teach her not to do it. Nope. Next time she eats it again. She even makes a face like, "This is really nasty." Then WHY????

*Her favorite word now is, "Ow-side?" I hear it non stop if we're inside. Then she runs to the back door and says, "baa doe," which is, "back door," which means she wants to play in the back yard and not the driveway or sidewalk, where we sometimes play if it's wet in the back.

*Her second new favorite word is "Ready?" Like in, "Ready, set, GO!" Grandma taught it to her last week when she was here, and now she says it before she does just about everything..... swinging, tickling, whatever.

*The first words out of her mouth this afternoon after she woke up from her nap were, "Swing? Park?" The park is her new favorite hang out. Thankfully there's a nice one close to our house. We have to drive there, but it's only a few minutes away.

*Last week when my mom was here I did some cleaning upstairs, as I mentioned before. I confess that the vacuum hasn't yet made its way back into the closet since then, and is sitting in the hallway outside our bedroom door and not far from our little one's bedroom door. As soon as she wakes up every morning and afternoon (after her nap), she pops up, peeks out the doorway and sees the vacuum, and says, "Hi, Seer," which is her word for sweeper. Then she makes a noise which is her impersonation of a vacuum. When we go downstairs she waves and says, "Bye, Seer," just before we go down. She's terrified of the thing when it's on, but she's still so friendly to it... isn't that nice?

*Bagels are her new favorite food. Cinnamon Sugar bagels, to be exact. She's also quite fond of chicken. Her drink of choice? "Wilk." You know, the white stuff that comes from cows. She can't get enough of the stuff. I used to be able to give her water instead sometimes when she asked for more (have you seen the price of milk these days? And she goes through a gallon in just a few days), but now she complains and asks for "wilk" when I try the switch--sometimes she drinks water fine, but when she wants milk, she wants milk. Doesn't like juice either. She loves her wilk.

*Last night we found a tick stuck to her scalp after her bath while we were brushing her hair (why we didn't find it in the bathtub when washing her hair, I'm not sure--I'm just glad we found it at all). We both freaked out a little, and there was lots of crying involved (her, not us) as we tried to hold her head still. We got it off, calmed her down, read stories, and she went to sleep, but then I spent the next 30 minutes reading everything I could find online about ticks and lyme's disease--and looking at gross pictures of the same thing we'd just pulled off our daughter's head. I'm going to call the doctor tomorrow just to be safe.

*A couple of weeks ago at the park there were a ton of pine cones on the picnic table near the playground. She found them and fell in love with them, carrying them all around and making rows of them on the ground. I told her, "Those are pine cones," several times, and she'd practice saying it. Then I noticed that she started putting them up to her head like she was combing her hair. It dawned on me that she thought I said " pine comb!" Hmmmm....no wonder she has ticks on her head!!!

the girl with the golden shoes

If you've read my blog for very long or know me very well you know how much I enjoy a good bargain. A little too much, in fact. I love this time of year because of the sun and warmth and all of that, but one of my favorite things is getting started at garage sales! Part of my love of bargains is born out of necessity, since I stay at home and we live off of just one income, but even if I worked and we had extra money floating around, I'd still go--bargain hunting is just a hobby for me! I especially love a good kids stuff garage sale. I actually hadn't been to any garage sales in quite a long time (growing up we used to go to them sometimes, but I never liked them much) until my little one was born and I realized what great shape so much baby stuff was in that I'd find at garage sales for a fraction of the price of buying it new. Around the same time of rediscovering garage sales, I discovered kids consignment sales. I've gotten so many great deals on stuff for her through these different sales.

Sadly, my luck hasn't been so good so far this year. But it's only April, so there's plenty of time for that to change. Last weekend I went to two consignment sales. I guess my luck hasn't been as good because I've been looking for very specific things--summer PJs and sandals, mainly. When you go into the sales looking for certain things, it makes it much harder and disappointing when you don't find what you want.

At one sale I found some PJs, but they're long sleeved, and I really need some short sleeved ones for her. No sandals either.

At another sale I didn't find a single thing! Drove all the way there (about 30 minutes away--how much money did I waste in gas?!) and didn't buy a single thing. Very disappointing.

Yesterday at a consignment sale I got several cute things, but nothing on my list...good deals, but just things I liked and not pressing needs.

Today at a garage sale I found a couple of other things, but again, nothing on my list.

The most immediate need was sandals. There have been several very warm days this week and I've wished I had sandals to put on her. But every time I try a pair on her in a store, they're too big and too wide. The smaller size is too short (and still too wide--she has narrow feet like me). This left me with two choices. One: go without sandals for awhile and hope I found a pair of Stride Rites (the only kind that fit) at a garage sale, which sometimes happens, but not likely, or Two: actually buy a pair of Stride Rites (gasp....at full price.....unheard of in my world--I don't pay full price for anything!). After striking out at every sale and every store, I decided to suck it up and actually get them for her. At Nordstroms of all places--my husband can't believe I actually set foot in the store, let alone bought anything there. But they didn't have her size at the Stride Rite store, and they did at Nordstroms.

And at the price I paid for a pair of shoes for a two year old who loves to get dirty, and that will last her (hopefully) through one summer, I'm wondering if they're lined with gold???? Here's what they look like....cute, yes, but worth about a week's worth of groceries???? Not sure about that. But they stay on her feet...more than I can say about every other pair I've tried.She's really only ever had Stride Rites, with a couple of exceptions, but I've always found them either on ebay at a fraction of the cost (trust me, I looked this time, but her size must be very rare or something, because there's NOTHING!) or at a consignment store/sale, so I've never actually paid full price for a pair. I'd better have my head examined.

Mommy

She's finally calling me Mommy. Wow, it's taken two years to hear it. Mama was nice, but Mommy is so much better.... Now, of course, I hear it about a thousand times a day (I think she just must like saying it because often she'll just say it over and over and over...."Mooooooommmmyyyyyy....Moooooooommmmmmyyyyyy..." and on and on. But I love hearing it.

One of her favorite things to say, though, lately, is "Hi" to every single person (or inanimate object) she sees. And not just once....she says it over and over and over until you just want to bury your head in the sand because the other person really doesn't want to say hi one more time to a little girl who they've already said hi to fifteen times! Often she'll do this when we're out playing in the yard, so it's neighborhood kids who are walking by and she's telling them hi. Of course, once you reach a certain age it's not "cool" to say hi to people, especially two year old little girls, so lots of the teens will ignore her and keep right on walking. But she just keeps on saying hi. Poor, innocent little thing. One of these days her sweet little friendly bubble will be burst as she realizes that not everyone thinks she's as fabulous and ridiculously cute as her Mommy, Daddy, and grandparents do!!!

This morning I took part in another market research panel (every so often they call and I fit the profile and I join a panel to discuss something and get paid a ridiculous amount of money for a very small portion of my time). This time, though, instead of sitting at a table with a panel while interested businesses watched behind a two way mirror, we were at a table in front of a live audience while people asked us questions about what we're looking for in a cable company. It looked and felt very much like a press conference, with myself and about 7 other customers, up in front, and about 100 cable business executives, sitting in the audience. Not in my comfort zone in the least....but at least I was compensated well, and I really only had to answer a few questions, since lots of the questions didn't apply to me (we have a very basic cable and high speed internet bundle, and lots of their questions were about all of the extra stuff we don't have).

My mom was here keeping me company for a few days while my husband was gone on business, so she was able to babysit, which worked out perfectly. My little one and I had lots of fun with Grandma, and the weather was beautiful for her visit. Yesterday the two of them played while I worked upstairs cleaning and organizing all morning. It was so nice to get something accomplished and not have to worry about my little one running around getting into things or needing me. I told her if she came more often my house would be a lot cleaner! But it was hard to make myself go up and do it....I would've much rather have played with the two of them! But now that it's done and I have a clean, organized room and bathroom, I'm glad I did. Now if I could only do that in EVERY room!

"ut" and "noun"

In my daughter's language, "ut" means up and "noun" means down.

She likes very much to be picked "ut." Especially when I'm trying to cook dinner. Or fold clothes. Or get anything else done.

This morning I was folding clothes while she was watching, I think, Mickey Mouse. She came over and said "ut," with her arms stretched up to me, wanting to sit and cuddle with me while she watched. I told her no, that I was folding clothes and would pick her up in a minute.

And then I thought of this poem.....

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.
Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton


Whenever I'm trying to get something done and she's asking, "Mama, Mama," and wanting me to do something with her or pick her up, this poem comes to mind....particularly the last line, "I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep." It always makes me think, "Which is more important, that I get this done or that I spend time with my little girl?"

She usually wins.

Someday will come a day when she doesn't want "ut" anymore and only wants "noun" and doesn't want to play with me anymore. I'll wish for these days....

Of course, my house isn't always the cleanest as a result....

But I think she'll forgive me, don't you?

like father, like daughter

The first lawn mowing of the season....

(oh my, did I just get a video clip to work????) If you listen carefully over the lawn mower noise you can hear her talking--she's saying "suck, suck," which means "stuck, stuck!" She couldn't get her lawn mower to move anymore.

And this is what a sandbox picture is supposed to look like....

...short sleeves and sunshine...unlike the pictures we took at her birthday party. She's been loving getting filthy in her sandbox, and even sampled some for a snack this morning. She didn't like it, so I was thinking that she probably wouldn't try it again. Wrong....tonight after dinner she took a whole shovel full and tried to put it in her mouth. Thankfully I caught her before much of it got in, but gosh, that's gross. We need to work on those taste buds--acorns and sand? At least she's getting lots of fiber.

play doh

So this morning she learned how to play with play doh. Or rather, I played with play doh while she watched with fascination and played with the tools that came along with it.

She didn't like feeling it--I tried to get her to squeeze it in her hands, but she would mostly just poke it and take her hand away. She liked patting it down with her hand, and she liked trying to use the scissors, though she couldn't really figure them out and just ended up using them to stab into the play doh.

I got one color out at a time, and when she'd say she was all done I'd put it away...but then she'd say, "boooooooo" and want the blue can out, or "wewllwo" and want the yellow can, and so forth. We eventually played with every color, though I only got them out one at a time (so the colors wouldn't mix). She especially liked it when I used the garlic press looking tool to make "spaghetti." She didn't even try to put it in her mouth! We're making progress in that department (though she still does put the occasional acorn top in her mouth!).

But she enjoyed it, and I'm sure she'll learn to like touching it before long.

the final installment

I promise this is the last you'll hear of her birthday! It's been birthday week around here, not just a day. Yesterday was her party--my parents, my husband's parents, and my brother and his family came. There was a change in plans a couple of weeks ago--I mentioned before that I was making a lady bug cake. Well, I realized that she really wasn't that excited about ladybugs anymore, so I was only making it because I wanted to, not because it was something she'd love. What does she love right now? Pooh. So we had a Pooh party instead. She loved it. She had a fabulous time--mostly following her cousins around and running from one grandparent to the next to be held for a minute before wanting down and finding out what the cousins were up to.

Before I forget, we finished our project I mentioned a few days ago. I can't take much credit--I helped paint it, but my husband did almost all of the work. I saw one of these bookshelves in the Pottery Barn Kids catalog when I was pregnant and talked about how cute it was, but of course it was so expensive. He decided to draw the plans himself and build it from scratch. I think it's beautiful. This was her main present from us, though she also got some more beads, play doh (she hasn't ever played with it, so just think of the fun....and mess....that we're in for!), books, a toy lawn mower to push around outside, and an outfit. Now we have to find room for it!

At the party we opened presents--with anxious helpers, cousins Emma and Alex--She got puzzles, books, clothes, and sand toys for the sand box, which is now filled with sand!), cake and ice cream, and then dinner a little later.

She loved having everyone sing happy birthday!

And eating cake was a highlight (this picture was taken right AFTER she tried putting her whole face in the piece of cake--we didn't have the camera ready for that, unfortunately!!!)

After cake and ice cream her cousins wanted to go out and play in the new sandbox. It was sprinkling and freezing, but we decided to let them for a little while. They had a ball.

The rest of the day was playtime. She and Emma had fun together, and Emma taught her how to have a tea party!

She went to sleep a tired but happy girl.

portrait problems

We went to get her two year portraits taken today. Oh my....making a two year old sit still and smile on cue isn't an easy task. Daddy took the day off work and went with me, which helped a lot, but she was not very interested at all in smiling for the camera. She would've much rather spent her time playing (which is what she did with every single prop the photographer tried to use to get her to smile). It was quite a challenge, and I'm sure the photographer wasn't very happy with us, since after all of the time and frustration spent to get our little one to smile, we only bought the special $9.95 package!

There were some cute ones and we had trouble deciding, but this one was the best picture overall...even though her hair is messed up. The smile was the most genuine and looked the most like our girl.

I don't think we'll do pictures again until she's three. Maybe she will have matured a bit by then.

just sharing more birthday pictures....

Kaden and Allecia came over to bring her a present.... sandbox toys and a Cleveland Indians hat (which goes perfectly with the Cleveland Indians outfit she has!).

I made cupcakes (froze most of them since we'll have cake again for her party but left some out for eating last night) and she devoured it. We sang to her and did candles, but we only have that on video.

She opened a couple of presents, but will get the majority of them on Saturday at her party. She opened Leap Frog Fridge Phonics, an animal puzzle book, and a Pooh doll.

in this picture she's making Pooh dance to the ABC song that is playing on the Leap Frog toy

After dinner we played outside (for about the fourth time that day--they got the weather totally wrong and it was a gorgeous day!) and then went back to my favorite ice cream place and she had her very own dish of ice cream (usually she just eats from ours, but Grandma was paying!). They still didn't have Strawberry Chip, but I enjoyed my Black Raspberry Chip almost as much.

Here she is in "the birthday chair." I took her picture in this chair every month on the 9th of her first year of life, and then on her first birthday, and now on her second birthday. She's filling up the chair more and more each time!

Today she had her two year check up at the doctor. She's up to the 8th percentile in weight! Woohoo!!!! The doctor was really excited and called her a "big girl!" She's always been a tiny girl, so that was quite a compliment from the doctor! She's 22 pounds 14 ounces and 33 1/2 inches long (that's the 50th percentile for height). I just read yesterday that if you double their height at 2 years old it predicts their adult height. That would make her 67 inches, or 5'7"--I guess time will tell about that one!

my birthday girl

Happy Birthday to my sweet TWO year old!

It's been a fun day so far....

*woke up to Mommy and Daddy singing "Happy Birthday"

*ate a birthday muffin for breakfast (which she kept calling "cake")

*excitement over Grandma's arrival around 9:30

*first present--Pooh chair (she's obsessed with Pooh these days)

*shopping with Mommy and Grandma to a children's book store and Toys R Us

*second present--sandbox (to be filled with sand this weekend--right now it makes a good slide!)

and more fun to come....

*pizza for dinner--her favorite

*cupcakes and blowing out candles

*more presents

I can't believe my baby is two years old. This morning as I laid in bed I started thinking about two years ago today...the greatest day of my life. It makes me cry when I think about it-mostly happy tears, but also a bit of nostalgia as I realize that she's growing up so fast.

Here's a picture from yesterday...she got new rain boots and was SO excited to wear them. Once she got them on, though, she couldn't walk in them! In the last 24 hours I think she's had them on and off about 24 times! She puts them on, can't walk, then says "all done," and kicks them off. I think it's the heel--she has to get used to walking with them. She's better today than she was yesterday.

Her birthday party is Saturday. More pictures then.

it's really spring!

The last two days have been just beautiful-I just want to bottle it up and have some of it every day! It's almost 70 today (it may actually be 70..I haven't checked recently) and sunny and gorgeous. You'd better believe we spent almost the whole weekend outside. Saturday we did yard work. Okay, let me rephrase that.... Saturday I took our little one outside, got the rake out, and attempted to rake, but she saw her bike in the garage and wanted that, so I stopped raking and got that out. Started raking again....she wanted a ride. I stopped raking (oh, I probably should mention that we have a pin oak tree in our front yard, which apparently doesn't lose its leaves in the fall like every other tree in the world, but in the spring, which means we have to rake leaves not only in the fall but also in the spring....lucky us, huh? Remind me to never buy another house with a pin oak tree!). I pushed her on her bike for a bit and Daddy came out. He took the rake and started raking while I gave the bike ride. This officially passed the torch on to him to do the yard work--I spent the rest of the time playing with our little one and keeping her out of Daddy's way. "I thought you were doing the raking?" he asked once. I said, "But you're the one who took the rake from me, so now you're in charge!"

After he finished we went to Home Depot to get grass seed (last fall they redid our sidewalks and messed up our yard in the process, so we have lots of grass to replace) and paint for her birthday project, which is almost finished (more on that in a few days when it's actually finished and I can post a picture....until then you'll just have to wonder!). Came home in time for lunch and naptime, and during her nap he and I painted the project. We spent the afternoon outside and inaugurated our grill for the season by grilling steaks for dinner. After dinner we went to the best ice cream place in the whole world (I won't say the name because it's fairly local, and I don't like to give hints about where I live, but those of you who live around here will know where I'm talking about when I say it is "graet"). Online it said their Strawberry Chip ice cream was in season--that's my all time favorite ice cream and I was THRILLED to go get it. But when I got there, they didn't have it yet! I was very dissapointed....though having ice cream there is never a disappointment for me, so I got over it quickly and enjoyed my Peanut Butter Chip instead. The whole way there our little one was saying over and over again, "I Dee! I Dee! I Dee!" because we had told her we were going bye bye to get ice cream. She had a great time.

Then we went to a nearby park I'd only been to once before. It had a very tall tunnel slide that our little one decided she wanted to try. We were the only ones there, or I wouldn't have let her because it was very big and I'm generally not a fan of tunnely things for little kids because I'm afraid she'll get stuck and then I'd have to climb up in there to get her, but since we were alone, I decided to let her try. Daddy was with her at the top and I waited at the bottom and I could see up into the tunnel so she could see me and had a huge smile on her face. Daddy let go and down she came toward me VERY fast, but she was grinning from ear to ear with her hands up in the air. As soon as I got her she scrambled to the ground and ran to the steps to do it again. She loved it, and I've never seen her so excited about a slide. She did it over and over and over, running back up to the top each time. We finally had to tell her it was time to go, because it was almost her bedtime, but she would've stayed forever!

Yesterday after church, lunch, and naptime, we set off for another new park. We found out when we got there that there wasn't much to this park, but we went for a walk in the woods with our little one in the backpack on Daddy's back. She loved it, and I don't think she remembered it from last year, because she acted like it was a totally new experience, and said "pack pack" over and over again, so excited. She also got to play on the playground there and loved the big tall slide. It had really high sides so we let her go on it, with Daddy at the top and me at the bottom again. She kept running back for more. But there were a lot of big kids there playing and she came close to getting trampled a few times, so we didn't stay very long.

We came home and broke out the bubbles. She spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the yard "blowing" bubbles (this consisted of putting the wand in her mouth, mostly). This was the first time it had been dry enough to play in the backyard for any length of time, and it was so nice to just sit and watch her play and not have to worry about any "no nos." Anywhere else she plays it seems like there's so much I have to watch that she doesn't do, but in the backyard, since it's fenced in, she pretty much has the run of the yard, and it was really nice to not have to play policeman for the afternoon! She had a great time, and so did I, just watching her.

We grilled out again (hamburgers this time--we've gotten our red meat fix for awhile!!) and even ate outside on the deck, which was so nice.

This morning we ran errands and were going to come home and play outside, but I decided to take her to the park instead. We have a nice metropark very close to our house and we hadn't been yet this spring, so we went there. Before too long a friend of mine from church showed up unexpectedly with her little boy, who is just a couple of months younger than my little one, so we had an impromptu playdate, which was lots of fun. They really enjoyed chasing each other and swinging together and I enjoyed talking to my friend, who I hadn't seen in quite awhile. My little one fell in the mud toward the end of the morning, though, and her jacket and bottom were caked with mud. I hadn't brought the diaper bag so I didnt have a change for her....I just had to let the mud dry a little, take her jacket off, and let her ride home in muddy pants. It was dry by then, though, so it didn't dirty the car seat. Figures that I had just washed her clothes this morning, so I couldn't add these to the wash....doing a separate load now of random things of the same color.

I'm sure this afternoon we'll be back outside after she wakes up. We've got to soak in all of this springiness that we can because it's going to rain the rest of the week. Yuck. Wednesday is her birthday and I was hoping to go to the zoo, but it looks like that probably won't happen. We'll have to do an indoor activity instead that day to stay out of the rain.

It's going to be a busy week for the birthday girl.... Grandma's coming to visit, she has her two year check up, birthday portraits (that is, if the huge welt under her eye heals that she managed to get on Saturday due to a fall--if not I'll have to reschedule the pictures!), and her big party (well, not really so big....both sets of grandparents, my brother and his family, and maybe one of Daddy's sisters). So it's a busy week for me, too, with lots of cleaning and cooking and preparing to do. I'd better go get busy. I've been taking a break while the freshly mopped floor dries, but I think it's dry by now, so it's back to work.

Happy Spring!

random pictures

Last week we went to the local science museum with our friends Allecia and Kaden. We didn't realize it was spring break for most schools....HUGE mistake! It was a zoo, not a museum! We had to wait in line over a half hour just to get in. There's a special room for toddlers--it was mobbed with people, so I was so stressed trying to keep a close eye on her. She was constantly running from one place to the next and it's a lot easier for her to zip through a crowd of people than it is for me to weave my way in and out to keep after her! She and Kaden had a great time, though. I didn't get many good pictures, but this is one I like. She was playing in a little house with the kitchen sink.

Note to self....don't go to the science museum during any school break or holiday.

Last week on the day of the acorns I also got her tricycle out for awhile. She rode on it while I pushed for a little bit, but before too long she kept telling me "ah dah, ah dah," which is all done. She got off and decided she wanted to be the one pushing instead.

Lately she's begun staying in her crib to play for quite awhile after she wakes up from her nap. I go in there to get her and she's content just to talk and play for at least a half hour, sometimes more. I'll often put clothes away or some other job while she happily chats away. Once last week I went in to get her and found her socks off and one on her hand like a mitten. I happened to have the camera nearby and took a picture.